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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27609740">My Great Unfinished Symphony</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/galatiq/pseuds/galatiq'>galatiq</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF, dream team smp</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Real World, Angst, Blood, Blood and Violence, Character Death, Explosives, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Insane Wilbur Soot, L'Mantree, Manberg, No Romance, Permadeath, Villain Jschlatt (Video Blogging RPF), Villain Wilbur Soot, Violence, Wilbur Soot-centric, as in this is written like it's not in minecraft, l'manberg, l'manberg goes boom, ode to tubbo, the end of the election arc</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 02:14:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,101</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27609740</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/galatiq/pseuds/galatiq</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What if the battle for L'Manberg had been permadeath? Wilbur's speech to L'Manberg</p>
<p>Written as if everything in the SMP is real.</p>
<p>Does contain spoilers for Nov 16th events.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Toby Smith | Tubbo &amp; Wilbur Soot, Wilbur Soot &amp; Phil Watson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>81</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>My Great Unfinished Symphony</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is basically a rewrite of the end of l'manberg except people actually died and its more serious. I did have to pick and choose which deaths were permanent, since there were a lot. I can't really draw so this is what I've chosen to do instead of an animatic lol. The majority of this plot does not belong to me, it belongs to Wilbur Soot, who wrote the plot for the election arc. I got hyperfocused and wrote this in like three hours, but i actually edited it! Please enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Wilbur stood looking out over the podium at the survivors of the war he had just won. Tommy was off to the side, looking haggard, but determined and proud, a long line of marred skin crossing over the bridge of his nose, his own mark to remember the tragedies they had overcome. Technoblade held his crossbow amidst the crowd—loaded despite the peace—still cautious after how easily the battle had come to end, gaze flitting back at Dream warily, who lurked at the edge of the seating area, his smiling mask splattered in blood. Wilbur was reminded of the soldiers he had led into battle that were not standing among the crowd beneath the podium.</p>
<p>Quackity lay somewhere in the fields near Pogtopia, a cool breeze probably brushing his face as wildlife grazed around him, unaware of the outcome of the fight, but with the knowledge he had laid down his life for the cause. They had not had time to bury him, having been rushed by enemy soldiers and desperate to escape with their own lives. Wilbur had promised the group that they would come back after they were victorious. They would give him a proper burial, one where Quackity was honoured for his sacrifices.</p>
<p>Karl, one of Dream’s men, had been gunned down by Technoblade almost instantaneously the minute they had stormed Manberg. His allies now stood in the distance, stares hardened by death, but he had fallen at the city limits, and they had buried him where he passed as soon as the war had been finished. A fresh mound of dirt, a grim reminder, lay at the edges of Wilbur’s vision, just past the treeline, beneath which Karl rested.</p>
<p>Schlatt, who had been snuffed out on his own measures, had been buried where the walls once stood proud. In the end, it had been a heart attack that had done him, and he had died a long, drawn out death, surrounded by enemies and lost in delirium. Nothing about the former tyrant’s demise had been glorious or victorious. This hadn’t been a fight against a battle-hardened warlord, but a sad old man who had died without dignity. Schlatt had ruined the country beyond repair, but, when his heart stilled, he hadn’t even remembered what he had done. Wilbur couldn’t even force himself to pity him.</p>
<p>And Tubbo, poor Tubbo—the first casualty of the months-long war—slept beneath the L’Mantree. Grass had long since grown over his grave, and flowers had begun to peek their heads out of the soft soil, drawing bees to his final resting place. Tubbo would’ve liked the bees, Wilbur thought to himself, gazing to where he knew the tree stood behind the obsidian. Out of all the losses in the war, Tubbo’s had hurt the most. He had been dragged into the fight through his connection to Tommy, and had spied diligently for Pogtopia, even though he and Tommy had been the youngest of the battle.</p>
<p>Schlatt had turned on Tubbo suddenly, had coerced Technoblade to help, and Tubbo had died a horribly cruel death. Not a single person who stood before Wilbur hadn’t witnessed it, and not a single one of them had agreed with it. Wilbur could still see the effects of the execution in Tommy’s posture, though the boy tried to stand tall.</p>
<p>The crowd felt empty without the fallen, but Wilbur could feel the energy slowly begin to rise. He watched his son’s mouth spread into a smile, relief that all the treachery and deceit was finally over pouring down his face in rivers of tears. Fundy turned to Niki, who was wiping her own eyes, and Eret came up behind them, grinning, and hugged the two in a group hug full of shaky laughter and exclamations of relief. If Wilbur squinted, he could see the Dream Team pat each other on the back, a few crying at the death of their friend.</p>
<p>Tommy was looking at Wilbur, hope shining in his eyes. Even though Wilbur had conceded to Tommy that he had been wrong, that Tommy deserved to be president of the newly taken-back L’Manberg, Tommy had given back presidency to Wilbur in a speech where he promised he would get back his precious discs. No one had mentioned it, but Wilbur knew it was one of Tommy’s last connections to his late friend, and, in order for Tommy to feel like the war was truly over, he needed to come to terms with his loss.</p>
<p>As Tommy walked down the steps of the podium toward the crowd, Wilbur debated what he could say to the citizens of his reborn nation. Despite everything, he still felt bitter about his exile; he still remembered the way that his allies had turned on him and Tommy and forced them to flee. Wilbur knew, logically, that they too had been forced, breaking down L’Manberg’s walls and turning on their former leaders under Schlatt’s bidding, but he couldn’t get the image of their blades turned on him out of his head. It would never be the same, no matter how hard he tried to forget. L’Manberg was undeniably different.</p>
<p>“Look, I’m going to keep this brief,” the words came to Wilbur, and he spoke them quickly. “I also cannot be your president.” Paying no mind to the shouts of confusion and the objections, he continued on. “Techno, you’ve taught me a lot, you’ve taught me that government is <em>not</em> the way to go, and I agree with you. Everything you’ve said- I completely agree with you. And to be honest, I feel like whilst I cannot be here to judge how others’ governments are ran, I can say that it would be hypocritical of me to run a government so I’m going to hand off the presidency to someone.”</p>
<p>Wilbur’s audience watched him, murmuring to each other. Tommy’s brow was furrowed in confusion.</p>
<p>“I <em>need</em> to hand off the presidency,” Wilbur reiterated. “And this is something I want to be for one last time.” He sighed, looking over at the obsidian cage that housed the tree. “It’s important to know how to say goodbye to a nation, to my L’Manberg, and I want to, and there’s only one other person who could possibly be the president.”</p>
<p>The crowd below Wilbur waited for him to finish, silent with baited breaths. Wilbur closed his eyes, hoping the person he had in mind would hear him somehow.</p>
<p>“Tubbo,” Wilbur called, not daring to open his eyes. His next few words were drowned out by the cries that rose from the citizens of his once beloved country. “I leave my unfinished symphony to you.”</p>
<p>Wilbur stepped off the podium, heading for the room he had dug out into the back of the hill when he had been filled with an urge for revenge, a hunger to right the wrongs done by Schlatt. Now, as he walked towards it, followed by the sounds of chaos from the seating area, all he felt was that what he was going to do was right, was what needed to be done.</p>
<p>Wilbur could hear Tommy yelling out his name, telling him to come back to the podium, but he ignored it, just as he ignored Niki’s shrill calls as she reminded him of what had happened to Tubbo. Dream was cackling, loud and arrogant, completely unbothered by the turn of events. As Wilbur found his way through the secret passage, fireworks erupted behind him, followed by screams. Technoblade’s own guffawing laughter joined Dream’s.</p>
<p>In the back of Wilbur’s mind, he wondered if someone had defused the explosives like Schlatt had done the first time Wilbur had laid them beneath the country. He contemplated the button that sat at the end of the tunnel before him, knowing there was only one way to find out. Though fireworks and shrieks echoed from the land above him, shaking the ceiling and dislodging pieces of dirt that rained down on him, the anthem of L’Manberg filled Wilbur’s ears, drowning out the sound of the battle come anew.</p>
<p>There was truly no going back. The paradise that Wilbur had once tried so hard to create was gone forever, beaten, broken, and bruised. He knew that there had been more fatalities in the passing few moments, how could there not be when there were two elite warriors determined to end the War of L’Manberg once and for all? Wilbur reached the button; comfortably aware this was not the catalyst for the destruction but the decorations on the cake that was the demolition of his country. He hesitated, however, hand hovering shakingly over the button.</p>
<p>It would all be gone soon enough, with or without the help of his explosives.</p>
<p>“It’s right there,” he told himself aloud. “The button is right there.” Wilbur lowered his hand to rest on the button, blinking his eyes shut.</p>
<p>His phone rang in the silence, and Wilbur answered without a thought.</p>
<p>“What are you doing?” A familiar voice demanded from the other side of the line.</p>
<p>“Phil?” Wilbur lifted his hand from the button.</p>
<p>“What are you doing?” Phil repeated, his tone leaving no room for nonsense.</p>
<p>“I wasn’t doing anything!” Wilbur told him cheerfully, tuning out the underlying guilt that came with lying to his father. “We’ve just made Tubbo president! And we won! We won the war, Phil! Schlatt’s gone- Schlatt’s gone, Phil, so it’s, um,” Wilbur paused, the silence thick. “It’s good.”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Phil told him, brushing away what he had said. “And you are where exactly now?”</p>
<p>“In L’Manberg,” Wilbur stuttered, trying hard to wave away Phil’s suspicion. “You wouldn’t know—I don’t think you’ve been here—but it’s the area around L’Manberg. It’s complicated.  Geography, geography, and that, you know, it’s geography and stuff-” Wilbur cast a look over his shoulder and trailed off, catching sight of his father, who stood at the end of the hallway.</p>
<p>“Mhm,” Phil replied after a heavy quiet. As Wilbur watched him put his phone away, in the back of his head he noticed that the fighting above had stopped.</p>
<p>“Oh,” Wilbur said dumbly, putting his own phone away. His fingers itched to rest upon the button again, but with Phil watching him it was much harder to find the nerve to.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Phil looked at him sternly. “In L’Manberg, you said.”</p>
<p>“This is L’Manber-” Wilbur tried, but stopped as soon as he started, unable to keep eye contact when Phil was looking at him with such grave disbelief. “Okay, I will admit…” he trailed off, looking back at the button a few centimeters below his palm. “Do you know what this button is?”</p>
<p>“Uh-huh, I do.”</p>
<p>“Do you know the national anthem?” Wilbur asked, trying to divert Phil’s attention from the horrors he was about to commit. “I was just thinking, you know, the first line, ‘There <em>was</em> a special place’ but it’s not there anymore, you know, it’s not…” Wilbur went quiet again, mouth uncomfortably dry. Phil was giving him a look of pitying concern.</p>
<p>“It <em>is</em> there,” Phil insisted. “You’ve just won it back, Will.”</p>
<p>“Phil!” Wilbur screamed, cutting him off. “I’m always so close to pressing this button, Phil, I’m always so close! I have-I have been here! Like seven or eight times <em>I have been here!</em> Seven or eight times!” Wilbur took a moment to glare at Phil, heaving like he had never breathed before. Above them, the fireworks took up their booming again.</p>
<p>They both looked up, both having no way of knowing if anyone had died. The ceiling shook.</p>
<p>“They’re fighting! <em>They’re fighting!</em>” Wilbur exclaimed.</p>
<p>“And you want to just blow it all up?” Phil asked him after a lengthy pause filled with the crashing of the lightshow above.</p>
<p>“I do, I do,” Wilbur whispered, hand coming down to rest on the button finally. “I don’t even know if the button works anymore. I could press it, but would it really matter? We don’t know how many people have just been killed.”</p>
<p>“Do you really want to take that risk? That you’ll blow <em>everyone</em> up?” Phil laughed, but there wasn’t any joy in it. He was smiling at Wilbur, but there were tears in his eyes, very unlike the ones that Wilbur had seen in the eyes of this citizens just moments before. “There are a lot of explosives, potentially connected to that button.”</p>
<p>“There was a saying, Phil,” Wilbur told him, ignoring what Phil had said, “By a traitor, once part of L’Manberg.”</p>
<p>“Yeah?”</p>
<p>“He had a saying, Phil,” Wilbur let his hand rest more on the button. He felt his throat constrict, turning away so Phil wouldn’t see the tears in his own eyes. He choked. “‘It was never meant to be!’”</p>
<p>He pressed the button.</p>
<p>“Oh my god,” Phil gasped, rushing forward. Wilbur put his hand up in a salute, squeezing his eyes shut tight. “You didn’t-”</p>
<p>A deafening boom resounded throughout the country, the shockwave pinning Wilbur and Phil against the wall. Fire licked at Wilbur’s face, heat ripping away the breath from his lungs. For a brief moment, Wilbur was certain that he would die here, next to his father, and he found that he didn’t seem to have any problem at the thought, but then the heat and the pressure subsided and all Wilbur was left with was a ringing in his ears and a gaping hole in his control room.</p>
<p>Though both he and Phil had been dazed by the explosion, Wilbur scrambled to his feet quicker, stumbling as he rushed through the secret passage to the top of the hill. His skin stung, burned and scratched many times over in more places than he cared to count, and it made him trip as he reached the crest of the hill. He fell to his knees, looking out over his country once more.</p>
<p>His immediate observation was that everything was on fire, glowing ominously as the evening sky darkened. His second was that the podium and its seating area was completely gone, obliterated by the force, though he could spot bits and pieces of it littered across the countryside, along with a few bodies. There were still people alive, running around like ants chasing each other. Wilbur thought he could identify a few of them, but the only one who he knew for certain was Tommy, who stood by the tower, glaring straight at him.</p>
<p>Wilbur could see the burns and soot over Tommy’s face and clothes. The gash across his nose had reopened, bleeding profusely, but Tommy stood rigidly, gaze unblinking. He was angry, that much Wilbur could tell, but when was he never angry? Wilbur could practically feel Tommy’s fury radiating off him, but maybe that was just the heat from the flames.</p>
<p>“Wilbur! <em>What have you done</em>?” Tommy shrieked at him, and Wilbur laughed.</p>
<p>He chuckled when he saw Technoblade take down Niki and cackled when he saw Dream bring Eret to his knees. No matter how much he tried, Wilbur couldn’t stop laughing at the misery that had befallen his friends, tears pricking at his eyes.</p>
<p>That was how Phil found him, crying with peals of laughter, unable to cease as he surveyed the wreckage of his once glorious country.</p>
<p>“It’s all gone,” Phil commented in quiet dismay. Though Wilbur could not express it through his laughter, he hoped Phil wouldn’t notice the body that had landed near them after the explosion, immediately recognizable to him as his son, Fundy.</p>
<p>“<em>My</em> L’Manberg, Phil!” Wilbur shouted when he’d finally recovered, still on his knees. “<em>My</em> unfinished symphony, <em>forever unfinished</em>! If I can’t have this, <em>no one can</em>, Phil!”</p>
<p>“Oh my god,” Phil said under his breath.</p>
<p>Wilbur looked up at Phil, at the way the fire cast an amber glow on the under side of Phil’s face. He glanced at his eyes, watching as they roved back and forth across the destruction like his own had.</p>
<p>“Kill me, Phil,” Wilbur demanded quietly. “Kill me, Phil. Phil, <em>kill me.</em>” Wilbur crescendoed, brandishing a knife and thrusting it into Phil’s fumbling hands. “Phil, <em>stab</em> me, murder me!”</p>
<p>Phil looked down at him, horrified, as Wilbur wrapped Phil’s fingers around the handle of the knife.</p>
<p>“Kill me, do it!” Wilbur insisted, shouting at him. “Murder me, Phil!” He gestured at the people scurrying around the blaze. “Look, they all want you to!” Wilbur grinned manically.</p>
<p>Phil gazed at the ruins again, then back at Wilbur, eyes glistening.</p>
<p>“Do it, Phil, kill me,” Wilbur told him softly.</p>
<p>“<em>You’re my son!</em>” Phil screamed at him. Wilbur watched his hands closely as they curled around the knife of their own accord. “No matter what you do-”</p>
<p>“<em>Phil!</em>” Wilbur interrupted him, standing up. “Look! <em>Look!</em> How much work went it this and it’s gone?” He looked out at the remnants of his country, his gaze halting at the obsidian that he knew the tree lay safely behind, the L’Mantree. “Do it.”</p>
<p>Phil said nothing, and, for one bone-chilling moment, Wilbur was terrified that he would leave him here, on the top of the hill where the white house and the podium had once stood, now both gone, alone in the mess that his L’Manberg could never recover from. Then Phil embraced Wilbur, grasping the back of his head so that Wilbur was forced to look straight at the L’Mantree.</p>
<p>“I love you, son.”</p>
<p>When he stabbed Wilbur, he didn’t let go, despite the blood that Wilbur was beginning to cough up on shoulder.</p>
<p>“You couldn’t just win?” Phil asked him miserably, lowering him to the ground and removing the knife.</p>
<p>“You know how Dream said there was a traitor?” Wilbur answered with a question. He looked up at Phil’s eyes one last time, the grief in them unescapable. “It was Technoblade and me.”</p>
<p>Phil shouted an exclamation of fury up at the sky, then looked back down at Wilbur. They shared a look, one filled with regret and unspoken words of mourning, and then Phil was gone.</p>
<p>“We won,” Wilbur assured himself as he spat blood onto the ashy grass in front of him. “We won.”</p>
<p>He kept repeating it to himself long after Phil had left.</p>
<p>His vision had narrowed as darkness began to creep in, and his limbs started to feel cold and detached. Wilbur’s head had long since gone fuzzy, filled with the cottony dreams that he’d once had for L’Manberg.</p>
<p>As he went, he looked out at the L’Mantree, at Tubbo’s grave, at the one place that had been spared of the demolition of his nation.</p>
<p>“<em>I leave my great unfinished symphony to you.</em>”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Leave a comment on what you think! Also sorry if this made anyone sad</p></blockquote></div></div>
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